Hello All. Acquired Tinnitus Six Days Ago. Need Advice!

[EmperialKitten]

Hi there forumies! I've taken a brief look around since my Tinnitus started and this seems like quite the support system, I must say i'm very grateful that this resource is available.

Anyways lets get to the point. On April 11th 2016, Last Monday, I was invited to by a buddy of mine to shoot a gun for the first time, A Smith & Wesson 9mm hand gun to be precise. To keep a long story short my buddy owns land so we weren't at a range where newbie instruction would be enforced, this lead to shooting off rounds without protection. I shot about 20 or so rounds without protection. It didn't necessarily feel good but as no one else was wearing protection I assumed I'd be alright, As given friend is usually a very responsible person. After firing the rounds I could tell my hearing took a hurting, but figured it'd pass as I have had no previous experience with firing weapons. about 36 hours in I started to get a little worried/paranoid in wandering if it'd stop. Clearly it did not. I went to the doctor today has I didn't have access to a practitioner earlier. Good news is the ear drum appears to be fine and without any wear/tear, bad news is the ringing still has not stopped, although my hearing in my left ear (the ear that got effected) seems to be coming back completely, but i'm still dealing with this generally low pitch but consistent ringing. My general practitioner gave me a steroid (which after researching might not be to effective since i'm about a week out from the trauma) and explained to me that I should take it easy and stay away from loud noise. Also, that if the ringing didn't subside in five days to call back and she would refer me to an ENT ( although she claimed that they'd essentially tell me the same thing she did) So my story being told I'd like to know what advice you'd give for someone has recently developed T ( Or at least short-term T) and in handling this first delicate month, and some theory as to behaviors that promote the chance of it going away before chronic T sets in. Another question being, whats the general consensus from this community on ENT's?

Thanks for the time and I just wanted to say that after slightly combing through this forum I have tremendous amounts of respect for all of you that are dealing with this condition and doing the best you can. Never quit fighting & never give up on yourself

 

[Bobby B]

Your best "shot" (!) at getting your ears to heal is to really protect - I mean really overprotect them - during the next 6 months to a year.

Imagine you broke your leg - this is going to take time to heal and you if think you can go back to normal in a few days/weeks then its going to get even worse real quick.

No more than 65 db into you ears - that means earplugs or large ear muffs outside mostly, no bars/clubs/concerts etc..for a few months even with plugs.

Yes you will "hear" the T louder but you will have to put up with this for a while as that's the only way to get to the long term improvements and also avoid short term worsening as the inner ear is still in healing mode and normally loud sounds are dangerous right now.

You noticed hearing coming back so you do realize that the body has some ability to heal the ears when its still in acute phase but the remaining 20% of healing that is needed to really start getting the T down in annoyance level is going to take 80% of the time...and effort with hearing protection.

This is going to be a long process so patience is key.

Also, the final outcome depends on what your noise exposure history was prior to the shooting - if you had a history of going to loud clubs/concerts/playing music or through portable earbuds loud then its going to be harder as your ear had already some damage that was unnoticed.

And even if your T ends up vanishing, which is possible, you still need to be super careful around loud noise for the rest of your life because the next time you will get even louder T & worse hearing loss won't be after 20 rounds probably more like just one round.

 

[matt89]

Your best "shot" (!) at getting your ears to heal is to really protect - I mean really overprotect them - during the next 6 months to a year.

Imagine you broke your leg - this is going to take time to heal and you if think you can go back to normal in a few days/weeks then its going to get even worse real quick.

No more than 65 db into you ears - that means earplugs or large ear muffs outside mostly, no bars/clubs/concerts etc..for a few months even with plugs.

Over-protection (means wearing earplus all the time) is not recommended, because this causes over-sensitization and can support the development of hyperacusis as well. Your hair cells are like a piano which needs to be played to a certain extent and it's not a good idea if your ears don't know for a year how normal road traffic sounds (if an ambulance car with siren passes by take your fingers to close your ears).

Avoid going to loud bars for three months. Avoid going to clubs and concerts for a year.
Afterwards protect your ears with earplugs and take N-Acetylcystein (1200 mg, 6 hours before) when you want to go to such places.
But you can walk on the streets like before. Take earplugs with you all the time, so you know you have some kind of back-up with you all the time when you expect loud noises to occur (e.g. when you are on a train station).

What I recommend to you:

1. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
(It's expensive, but especially in case of an acoustic trauma early after on-set (within one month) one of the best therapy options which causes a decrease of T loudness in many cases)

2. AM-101 Trial
(Participate in the AM-101 trial provided you are living in Europe. Acoustic trauma is one of the subgroups where AM-101 shows the best results)

 

[Bobby B]

The best earplugs/muffs only cut noise by 30db , a noisy street which is about 75 - 85db still gives you 45-55 db which is plenty enough to give the hair cells some exercise.

Unless you wear plugs at home when its quiet there is no way to cut sound completely.


The concept that you need enough sound to avoid permanent H has no scientific backing at all.
Not a single study mentions something like that.

Your ears do not need to listen to road traffic at all.

Millions of people wear earplugs/muffs in workplaces and sleep with plugs etc.. If this would be true there would be an epidemic of Hyperacusis in the world.

And what happens if you sleep in a completely quiet room all your life like million of people do ? do you get permanent H as well ?

Hyperacusis in the case of acoustic trauma - not mental/anxiety/sound phobia issues - is caused by the brain amplifying all sounds as some frequencies are lost, this is due to inner ear damage and once the damage has healed to a certain degree, then H will improve.

 

[Ecip]

The best earplugs/muffs only cut noise by 30db , a noisy street which is about 75 - 85db still gives you 45-55 db which is plenty enough to give the hair cells some exercise.

Unless you wear plugs at home when its quiet there is no way to cut sound completely.


The concept that you need enough sound to avoid permanent H has no scientific backing at all.
Not a single study mentions something like that.

Your ears do not need to listen to road traffic at all.

Millions of people wear earplugs/muffs in workplaces and sleep with plugs etc.. If this would be true there would be an epidemic of Hyperacusis in the world.

And what happens if you sleep in a completely quiet room all your life like million of people do ? do you get permanent H as well ?

Hyperacusis in the case of acoustic trauma - not mental/anxiety/sound phobia issues - is caused by the brain amplifying all sounds as some frequencies are lost, this is due to inner ear damage and once the damage has healed to a certain degree, then H will improve.

This is incorrect.
Earplugs with a rating of 32 will decrease noise by about 12dB. There is a formula to figure this out and just because they are rated at 30dB doesn't mean they will reduce noise by as much.

 

[Bobby B]

the formula is there because people don't insert them properly

but inserted deep "when used as directed" as written on the package - it will give you the full 30db
I tried at home with various plugs and ear muffs and my calibrated DB meter

That's why I prefer ear muffs - easy to get the full 31db unless you have real long hair on the side perhaps

 

[matt89]

Millions of people wear earplugs/muffs in workplaces and sleep with plugs etc.. If this would be true there would be an epidemic of Hyperacusis in the world.
And what happens if you sleep in a completely quiet room all your life like million of people do ? do you get permanent H as well ?

This argumentation is not correct.
People with healthy hair cells (no damage) do not experience hyperacusis even if they live in a completely quiet room for the most time of their lifes.
We talk about people with T (damaged hair cells). These hair cells have become highly sensitive to further loud noise exposure, that's correct. But if you overprotect these already damaged hair cells you support the development/further development of hyperacusis. Damaged hair cells need a normal noise environment where normal sounds of normal road traffic should be included (without ear plugs).

Think about a piano where some keys are not working as they should, maybe because the piano hasn't been tuned for years or is just an older one. You can still play on these keys and the tone is coming but not as good as when the piano was new. If you play on these keys you keep the remaining lower tone upright, if you don't or never play on these keys the possibility is high that the tone reproduction will become weaker and weaker.

Same applies to damaged hair cells. They need protection after an acoustic trauma, no question. So avoid things like loud bars, cinemas, clubs, concerts for a longer period of time and use earplugs afterwards when you want to visit such places.
But over-protection (means wearing earplugs all the time except at home) wherever you go for a year is the wrong solution.

 

[Bobby B]

ear protection does not cut noise it only lowers it to a safe level . Without protection any loud noise can cause damage quickly see this example :

Seal, before the spike from the car bonnet incident 7 weeks ago i never wore earplugs, didn't need to, never thought sudden loud everyday noises would change my tinnitus, only loud bars, clubs general noisy places I avoided.

After getting this increase I started to think maybe brief loud noises you experience everyday is enough to cause increased tinnitus. 7 weeks ago I never had sensitive hearing, never wore earplugs but slamming shut a car bonnet was enough to permanently increase my tinnitus, not only causing this increase but it gave my temporary threshold shift for 5 days after!

 

[Bobby B]

There are many examples of that here - you don't need much loud noise to make it much worse .
A noisy street is 45 Db wiht plugs so that's still plenty enough assuming your piano theory is true which we don't have any scientific study on.

I haven't read a single example where wearing ear protection made hearing worse !

I am wearing it myself outside and my hearing got a lot better in the past months.
my h has decreased as well.
Even wiht earmuffs on I can still clearly hear what people say in The street , so no issue at all getting enough sound into the ears.

 

[Bobby B]

Besides - if you are worried that 45-55db walking an hour in town with protection isn't sufficent enough to keep the hair cell alive and well then what about sleeping in a quiet bedroom ?

We spend a lot more time sleeping Every day 8 hours in a 10-25 Db bedroom so is this bad ?

This would be a much bigger issue if it was true